[bbor]

Here’s an annoying question: how would one play the discovery of Venusian life into personal gain? I’m thinking “startup/invest in space” as a starting point, but surely there’s a more fun/rediculous way.

Let’s assume that these signals are indeed based in life, and that that life is mostly boring to laymen — some type of bacteria or lava tube denizen with minimal complexity, say

[shejdb688]

That's what these researchers are doing. There's vanishingly little possibility of life on Venus; they're fishing for research funds in leu of proposing kinetic mechanisms for the phosphine.

[XenophileJKO]

Found a new religion based on transpermia. Discovery of life on another planet would shake things up a little in the theology department.

[krapp]

Not really. I think most religions don't have an issue with the premise of alien life. They would simply fold it into their existing theology, as they have every new paradigm-shifting discovery about reality. Even the Catholic Church's stance is that if aliens exist, they're just another part of God's design.

And there are already plenty of cults and religions that incorporate aliens (cough Scientology cough.) It's going to be difficult to compete against Nordics and Greys and hyperdimensional ascended masters and Xenu with some Venusian moss on a rock.

[linkjuice4all]

Maybe get started by speculating in real estate and mineral (gas?) rights. Don’t forget some sort of platform for managing space start up company HR training video sharing across different planetary time codes. It couldn’t hurt to try to patent whatever atmospheric components are on Venus just to establish some claim to ownership. Oh and interstellar crypto - duh.

[yieldcrv]

Its the right question to ask: speculation breeds innovation and nothing else has motivated humans to bother

the merely curious get nowhere, the financially incentivized risk takers with asymmetric upside have a selective evolution of failures and successes towards a couple that find an edge

[tjpnz]

Weyland-Yutani found a way to exploit alien life and eventually got acquired by Walmart.

[PaulHoule]

B a bullshitter like https://astronomy.fas.harvard.edu/people/avi-loeb